Nor does TSA need to let you on your flight. There's nothing to stop them from questioning you for four hours when you don't bring an ID.

That's a pretty compelling case for accepting the idea of intellectual property. If the good guys don't assert ownership and control then the bad guys certainly will. The thing is, not everyone agrees on who the good guys are...

While we're at it, let's forgo backups. Do you really think a hard drive is going to die? And insurance. What are the chances your house will burn down? And seat belts. And safety harnesses. Because if it's not likely, it's not worth the trouble of protecting against, right?

Exactly. There's a time component left out of the 0.1 rem figure. I probably took Tylenol every week last year. 400 milligrams per dose * 52 weeks = 20,800 mg. That doesn't mean I'd take 104 Tylenol in a day.

Some do, apparently. See http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/us/cell-carriers-see-uptick-in-requests-to-aid-surveillance.html?pagewanted=all

How many new substantial business ventures do you think got off the ground or went public in the last several decades without a loan? I'm talking about those large enough to have a national or even regional impact. Many businesses that provide the products we now use in our daily lives and the profits we have in our retirement portfolios simply wouldn't exist without bankers extending the loans. Whether the bankers benefit themselves or not is irrelevant (I can anticipate someone making the point that they were motivated by their own profit) -- the point is that these successful businesses are considered "good things" by a large segment of the population.

Take your meds.

Rei didn't suggest that the kind of person Crichton is has anything to do with whether he's right. He suggested it has something to do with whether his statements are worthy of debate.

Well, that is why people go into business.

Agreed. But then the business aspect comes into play: can they market it well enough to displace the market leader? There's plenty of crap out there that makes money despite the fact that better options exist. If it was as easy as just competent programming, someone would have done it already.

Agreed. This won't cause black hats to have a change of heart, but it will bring more white hats to the table by giving them more of an incentive.

People accumulate vast wealth (and continue to work) as a measure of success.

Using whose definition of "excess?"

What American post-9/11 the-ends-justify-the-means propaganda campaign were you just released from? Ever hear the Ben Franklin quote about essential liberty and temporary safety?

Yahoo is the real sinking ship. She'll be out of a job when they go belly up in 5 years.